La Feria (A Goodbye, of Sorts)

I haven't written anything in a few days, and for once it's because I'm truly, completely busy. This is my last week in Córdoba, and as such, I'm trying to live up this time as much as possible. Getting to do a bit more traveling and finally going home are both such exciting prospects, but I've realized how much I'm really going to miss this place. Before this post turns into one of those insipid and hackneyed essays about "how study abroad totally changed my life forever," I'll just say this:

My worldview three years ago was essentially only Platte County, Missouri. It's a beautiful place, but it's only one place in a very big world. Since I graduated high school and began college in Boston, I feel like I've only grown in the most exciting and fulfilling ways. I learned to make a new home for myself away from home. Coming to Spain--my first time in Europe--has been the biggest and brightest mix of emotions and experiences. I've only gotten the tiniest taste of the world that awaits us all, if only we have the luck to make good on an opportunity to seize some of it.

So basically, this post has just become what it was trying to avoid.

But anyhow, so yesterday at midnight was the start of feria, which is a huge fair in Córdoba. There are rides, games, casetas (these giant tents where you can drink and dance), lights, and loads of horses. I went on a few of the rides today with my good friend Jo, and we had a grand ol' time looking out at the city from the top of a swirly-spinny thing that went really high up. We also went on the most rickety, sad little roller coaster I think I've ever been on. It's moments like that I'm going to miss a lot.

At the feria, there is also an enormous botellón, which is basically a congregation of people drinking in the streets. All the young people go and get drunk together and it smells really badly. I went last night to explore with a few friends and was severely overwhelmed by the number of people. There had to have been at least a thousand of them, just in this huge fenced-in area. The police were standing there, containing it and completely cool with it. The whole thing was very strange to me, just because it's so out-of-step with U.S. drinking culture and legal customs.

Though I still have a lot to do before I leave, the top of the list is to ride the ferris wheel and eat churros with my friends under some pretty lights.

If you've gotten this far, thanks for plodding through my somewhat disjointed and sentimental writing. I'm leaving for Madrid on Monday, for Dublin on Tuesday, for Toronto on Thursday, and home on Friday. I'll share more vignettes when I have the opportunity!

A cell-phone photo of some of the said lights